"The Runaway Cinderella"-Analysis Of Elena’s Image In Ferrante’s Neapolitan Tetralogy

Elena Ferrante is a famous anonymous writer in contemporary Italian literature.Her series of works "the Neapolitan Novels "has attracted extensive attention in the academic circles since its publication.In character description,Ferrante describes female characters from the perspective of women,tries to break through female gender,break the conventional female image,and shape a new female image different from the past.Among the many women described in the works,Elena is undoubtedly the most special one.She is not only the protagonist,but also the first narrator of the story.At the beginning,Elena’s growth track had the shadow of the female image in the popular story——Cinderella,but the writer was not limited to Cinderella’s story template,but created a growing new female image through the continuation of Elena’s marriage life.Taking the image of Elena in "the Neapolitan Novels" as the research object,this paper uses the method of close reading to explore the theme of the novel.Based on Ferrante’s borrowing and continuation of Cinderella’s story,this paper analyzes the main plot of Elena’s growth experience,and examines the turning point of the character’s fate and the track of image development;Then,taking the narrator Elena’s repeated restatement as the clue,through text comparison,this paper discusses the reasons for the inconsistency of the main characters’ images,and shows the development of Elena’s image;Finally,focus on the change of Elena’s name and analyze the development and transformation of Elena’s self-cognition.Through close reading of the text,this paper aims to find Ferrante’s intention to subvert popular stories and rewrite female legends,and reveal the relationship between Elena’s image and the theme of the novel.The full text is divided into three parts.The first part is the introduction,which briefly discusses the research situation of the works,the significance and research ideas of this paper.The second part is the main body,which is divided into three chapters.The first chapter focuses on the plot analysis,and expounds the similarities between Elena’s growth track and Cinderella’s story.The second chapter focuses on how the narrator Elena describes the "Cinderella style" marriage and love.Through the repeated restatement of her images of husband,lover,mother and motherin-law.it reveals the inconsistency of the characters,and tries to explain the life course of women from the perspective of women.The third chapter explores the development and transformation of Elena’s image from the detail of the change of Elena’s name.The third part is the conclusion,pointing out that Elena’s image is actually an irony of the Cinderella story in popular literature.Elena is not a "Cinderella" who is pure,kind,beautiful and selfless in men’ eyes.She has no fixed essence.There is no great Redeemer in women’ life.Elena can only save herself by her own strength.She finally becomes a thinker and explorer of her own life path.The change of Elena’s image reveals the theme expressed in the Neapolitan Novels:Women’ self-search and exploration.